Glastonbury announce that it is not selling plastic drinks bottles at this year’s festival

The University of Manchester and its Students’ Union has announced that it is working to eliminate avoidable single-use plastics from catering, labs and stationary.

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Glastonbury Festival has announced that it will not be selling single-use plastic drinks bottles at this year’s Festival and will also not allow them to be supplied or available in any of the Festival’s backstage, production, catering and dressing room areas.

The festival’s partner, Greenpeace, has estimated that globally, up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the ocean annually, and has advised that the best way to avoid plastic pollution is to reduce the usage of the material.

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With more than one million plastic bottles sold at Glastonbury in 2017, the festival has said that stopping the sale of the bottles the “only way forward”.

It will be encouraging people who attend to use a reusable water bottle and refill it at any of the hundreds of free water taps around the festival site. The main water supply comes from Bristol Water, meaning it is the same quality as the taps at home.

Glastonbury is also tripling the amount of WaterAid kiosks where people will be able to refill your bottle.

Free drinking water will also be available from all bars across the site.

Canned soft drinks and canned Life Water will be available to purchase from all traders who previously sold soft drinks in plastic bottles.

According to the festival, almost 45 tonnes of aluminium cans were recycled in 2017 after being processed by the festival’s on-site recycling centre, and this year, it is expecting this figure to rise dramatically.

While people who are going to Glastonbury will not be prevented from bringing plastic bottles on site, it is urging everyone to join the effort by bringing as little single-use plastic as possible.

Glastonbury Festival co-organiser Emily Eavis said: “It’s paramount for our planet that we all reduce our plastic consumption, and I’m thrilled that, together, we’ll be able to prevent over a million single-use plastic bottles from being used at this year’s Festival. I really hope that everyone – from ticket-holder to headliner – will leave Worthy Farm this year knowing that even small, everyday changes can make a real difference. It’s now or never.”